Saturday, May 2, 2009

The wonderful Kelli has been keeping you all up to date and I cannot thank her enough for being my guest blogger, and for being a fantastic friend during all of this.

I arrived at the hospital Tuesday morning at 9 AM only to be told that they weren't quite ready for me yet, so we sat in the waiting room until about 10:00 AM or so. They then gave me an extremely stylish set of hospital clothes - no open back gowns here! The fabric felt a bit like terry cloth. The top was a button down shirt that fell just below the butt, pretty much like wearing a man's shirt, and the briefs were true granny briefs - they came up way, way too far! The also gave me some socks, the kind lacking any elastic whatsoever, so you put them on and they just immediately fall down. So, I took them back off.

Once properly dressed in Viborg's finest, I had to just lay in the bed and wait. They came and shot me in the gut with a blood thinner, apparently to avoid clotting while I stayed in bed for 24 hours. They also hooked me up to an IV line at this point. Before they wheeled me away, Kelli had arrived so Ole and I got some time to chat with her and that helped pass the time. I had a nurse attending to me, and she had a student nurse following her - the student nurse was a dead ringer for Drew Carey, so that's what I called him! Then Mario Andretti showed up to drive my bed from my room to the surgical area.

In the surgical area, I was forced to put the socks back on, and then I had to confirm which breast they were removing - a good safety check in my opinion. The nurses there then gave me some fancy plastic bootie shoes and a wonderfully fashionable hairnet - woohoo. I got out of bed and walked into the operating room. Now I had a team of nurses frolicking around me attaching things to me, asking questions, etc. At some point during all of this, they all exited and the surgeon came in to draw lines all over me. He left again, the gaggle of nurses returned, and with them, my favorite person in all of this - the doctor who would knock me out. First I was given what they were calling a 'block' - which I later figured out must have been an epidural of some kind. They gave me a shot in the spine and it felt like I imagine a house must feel when you blow insulation into its walls. Kinda cool really. Finally, they had me lay down and that's when the nice knock-out doctor gave me the good stuff - can't really tell you much after that point!

Cut to much later - I remember someone telling me that it was over, but that was all I heard. I recall waking a few times and asking for something to drink, and then immediately falling back to sleep. Eventually, at 7:10 pm, I woke up again and asked someone what time it was and then I asked when I could go back to my room, and they said "right now". And so, I got wheeled back and my 3 danish roommates cheered my arrival. They were so welcoming - apparently I'd been gone quite some time, and they were all happy to see me come back awake and smiling. Ole and Kelli then joined our little room party, Drew Carey brought me some food, and my day's ordeal was over.

The worst part of day one was not for me personally, but for Ole and Kelli. As it turns out, no one was telling them anything about whether or not I was out of surgery and that had them quite worried. Ole kept trying to get information but none was forthcoming and he was understandably frustrated. When I finally returned to the room, he was very relieved!

So that was day one. There is more to tell regarding the rest of the days until this point, but I figured day one was enough information for my first post surgery blog!

I was able to read all of your comments and I want to thank each and every one of you - you have definitely made this easier for me and I appreciate it so, so much!